


running in circles, coming up tails

by nutellamuffin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, James is so in love, Marauders, Marauders + Lily, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter Friendship, Remus Lupin Needs a Hug, Sorry Not Sorry, Young James Potter, Young Lily Evans Potter, Young Remus Lupin, and james is grateful for that, and lily needs someone who understands what it’s like to grow up in a muggle world, and remus is everything to lily that james can’t be, and remus needs a mom friend, because i’ll be damned if they haven’t all heard it before, in which everybody knows what rem’s Sleepy Voice sounds like, this turned into jily kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26408362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nutellamuffin/pseuds/nutellamuffin
Summary: it’s not common knowledge that remus lupin has not slept in twenty-one hours and seven minutes. or, perhaps, it’s not common knowledge to anyone but one lily evans.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, if you squint
Comments: 5
Kudos: 85





	running in circles, coming up tails

**Author's Note:**

> REMUS AND LILY'S FRIENDSHIP IS UNDERRATED REMUS AND LILY'S FRIENDSHIP IS UNDERRATED REMUS AND LILY'S FRIENDSHIP IS UNDERRATED REMUS AND LILY'S FRIENDSHIP IS UNDERRA- ahem.

it’s not common knowledge that remus lupin has not slept in twenty-one hours and seven minutes. or, perhaps, it’s not common knowledge to anyone but one lily evans. after all, remus  _ “put on a sweater or you’ll catch a cold” _ lupin, (also known as remus  _ “borrow my sweater, if you need to” _ lupin, remus  _ “you know what, keep the sweater, you’ll keep forgetting if you don’t” _ lupin, and remus  _ “better give one to peter too, he’s always shivering” _ lupin,) was in fact the same remus lupin as remus  _ “i’ll sleep when i’m dead or done studying” _ lupin.

much to lily’s dismay.

which is why she has played her cards perfectly to get here, an evening in the gryffindor common room in front of the fire, a gently loved copy of  _ how to save your own life _ in her hand, and the other nestled comfortably in the soft sandy locks of one werewolf she is trying to put to sleep.

but the werewolf, stubbornly, is not sleeping; despite his heavy eyelids and the weariness of his limbs, only staying where he is because it’s lily and you had to be an idiot to go against lily evans. he mumbles something in his half-asleep voice that is distinctly  _ remus _ about a potions assignment he needs to do, and lily sighs.

twenty-one hours and nine minutes.

honestly, they should pay her for this.

“rem, the potions essay isn’t due until thursday.” she chastises, flipping the page in her book with her pinky- a skill she taught herself to do, having spent many evenings this way, give or take whose hair she’s got her hand in.

“s’tuesday,” he yawns, and lily curses whoever made him this damn  _ stubborn. _

she drags her nails across his scalp, trying to relax him into slumber, and remus only huffs. “no, it’s monday night. you have loads of time.”

“s’late enough to be considered tuesday.” he replies, and the watch that james nicked for her-  _ muggle items are so fascinating, and i thought this would be useful, _ he’d said- hit midnight on her wrist.

remus  _ “i’m tired enough to sleep for days but i’ll still use big words and guess the time correctly” _ lupin. (twenty-one hours and eleven minutes, now.)

james sits across the common room and watches lily’s manicured nails disappear into the mop that remus calls hair. he can barely hear what he’s is saying, but he knows it would be in that half-hazy lilt of a voice that remus has when he’s half asleep; and lily, he can hear her perfectly, her voice that sings like a river does when water runs over rocks. except lily’s voice changes when she’s talking to remus, much like sirius tells him her voice changes when talking to james- as if he is some sort of wounded puppy.

perhaps he is, in a sense; he’d heard sirius, for one, tell him that. ( _ “you’re not a wolf, rem, you’re more like an angry puppy,” _ in which remus would snap his book shut and tell sirius to never say that again, and no one could tell whether he was being serious or not.)

lily’s voice changes, and james knows that remus wouldn’t let anyone else get away with it but her; she becomes gentler, as if her voice itself is cradling a baby bird. if it was anyone else, remus would glare at them over whatever he had in front of his face; he’d tell them he was not so, he did not need to be treated like some wounded animal, and to leave it be. 

but with lily, he lets her water-over-rocks voice calm him in front of the fire, he lets her play with his hair and talk of muggle things that make him smile; his signature remus lupin smile that you only saw if he let you, or if he was half asleep in the common room after not sleeping for twenty-one hours and nineteen minutes.

james listens to her say something about a videotape- which he doesn’t understand, because why would you need to make a  _ video _ when a picture tells it all- but whatever it is, remus laughs, a small huff of a noise that would tell them that lily is succeeding in lulling him to sleep.

in the beginning, james would not deny he thought that remus was trying to steal his girl. and it would certainly seem that way, what with the bond over prefects and probably, having idiots for friends. he had definitely thought that they were up to  _ something _ when they started disappearing together for more “prefect meetings” that james was sure there ever could be. until his birthday rolled around the corner and he was thrown the most extravagant party students could have, all organized by lily and remus. (who he’d thought had been off shagging in some broom closet, he told sirius over breakfast, who promptly spit out his pumpkin juice.)

but as he sits in his spot across the common room, where he has a clear vision of a friendship on a level he can’t have with lily, he realizes that's all right. lily is something remus needs, and remus is something lily needs, and sometimes all you need is a friend who understands your references to videotapes and record players and going to something called a movie.

(it’s more than that, james knows, too. lily has friends other than remus, and remus has friends other than lily, and maybe it’s the videotape stories or maybe it’s the fact that remus won’t let anyone else play with his hair, but another thing james knows is that remus lupin isn’t trying to steal his girl.)

james goes over to sit next to lily on the floor, glancing to the inside of her book. he checks her wristwatch, notices how her hair looks in the firelight, all the little things that lily pretends is annoying- but in reality gives her a continuous stability that hogwarts and all its chaos doesn’t.

“what are you reading there, evans?” he asks, sliding his arm around her shoulders in a move that he’s coined to be the smoothest in his arsenal.

lily tuts and shushes him, merely closing her book so james can see. (she doesn’t shrug his arm away, like she did when they first began dating with a roll of her eyes, and james can remark in good faith that it’s progress.)

“keep your voice down, james. i’ve just gotten him to fall asleep and if you wake him up, i’ll never forgive you.”

he would believe her, except she’s wearing her hint of a smile that belongs to only lily; and whilst he would never wake remus up on purpose, he knows that sooner than it would be a few months ago, she’d forgive him.

“not even if he snores?”

_ “james.” _


End file.
